Gift Vouchers increase upselling opportunities and encourage loyalty by offering customers the option to purchase Gift Vouchers as a present for friends and family.
Gift Vouchers can be sold and redeemed online as well as through the Box Office. You can report on when they’re purchased and what Customers buy with the credit their Gift Voucher gives them.
What is a Gift Voucher?
A Gift Voucher, also known as a gift certificate, is an item which can be sold through Spektrix and then redeemed for Account Credit. When a Gift Voucher is purchased, a unique code is sent to the purchaser or Gift Voucher recipient.
Once the recipient redeems the Gift Voucher, the value of the Gift Voucher is added as Account Credit to a their Customer Record. This credit can be spent on anything you sell through Spektrix in your organisation.
How to Set Up Gift Vouchers
Gift Voucher functionality is activated on request during implementation. You should be able to see the Gift Vouchers option in the Sales Interface by clicking Other.
You’ll see a Gift Vouchers and Voucher Search menu:
If you can’t see the Gift Vouchers option, contact Support to turn on Gift Voucher sales. You’ll need to provide the following information:
- Maximum Gift Voucher value
- Email address you want Gift Vouchers to send from
Once our Support team has confirmed the Gift Voucher feature is active, you’ll need to set up the following:
- Default limit on future Gift Voucher Delivery. This is the limit (in months) a voucher can be sent after the purchase date.
- Expiry Date for Gift Vouchers. You can choose an expiry period in months, or set vouchers to Never expire.
REMINDER: You’ll need the Settings Administrator Role on your User Account before you can change these Settings. If you don’t have this, ask the Administrator in your organisation.
Once you have the correct user permissions, follow these steps:
- Click the Control Panel button (in the bottom left corner of Spektrix):
- Click Settings:
- Click Configuration > System Setup from the top menu:
- Click Credits & Commissions from the left menu:
- Default limit on future Gift Voucher delivery: Enter a value (in months):
- Default Gift Voucher Expiry: Enter a value (in months), or select Never expire:
- Click Save Configuration:
TIP: A Gift Voucher sent by email will have an expiry date relative to the date the Gift Voucher is sent rather than the purchase date (if different). If a Gift Voucher is purchased on 10th December and sent on 25th December, the Voucher will expire a set number of months from 25th December.
A printed Gift Voucher’s expiry date is set as soon as the Order is confirmed.
Redeeming Gift Vouchers Online
If you want to let Customers redeem and spend Gift Vouchers online, you’ll need to switch on the option to Display the Account Credit section on your website’s “My Account” Page.
You’ll need the Settings Administrator Role on your User Account before you can change this Setting. If you don’t have this, ask the Administrator in your organisation.
Once you have the correct user permissions, follow these steps:
- Click the Control Panel button (in the bottom left corner of Spektrix):
- Click Settings:
- Click Configuration > System Setup from the top menu:
- Click Website from the left menu:
- Click Display the Account Credit section on your website’s “My Account” page:
Once you’ve configured your Gift Voucher Settings, proceed to the next section How to Create Gift Voucher Document Designs.
How to Create Gift Voucher Document Designs
Depending on whether you want to print Gift Vouchers or send them by email, you’ll need to create the following:
- Gift Voucher Design
- Gift Voucher Email Template
You’ll need the Sales Administrator Role on your User Account before you can change these Settings. If you don’t have this, ask the Administrator in your organisation.
To find Gift Designs, follow these steps:
- Click Control Panel (in the bottom left corner of your Spektrix system):
- Click Admin:
- Click Document Designs > Gifts:
Gift Voucher Design
If you haven’t previously created a Gift Voucher Design, you’ll see an Add button to the right of Gift Voucher:
You create a Gift Voucher design in the same way you’d create a Ticket Design: read The Ticket Design Tool for instructions.
Once you’ve created your Gift Voucher design, you can print a Gift Voucher as you would a ticket.
Gift Voucher Email Template
If you want to send Gift Vouchers by email, you’ll need to use a Gift Voucher Email Template. A basic email template is provided:
You can use a standard, plain text version of your Gift Voucher email, or you can create a custom HTML Email Template to match your organisation’s branding.
Whether you use plain text or HTML, you’ll need to include following merge fields (including brackets {}) in your email template to pull through information from Spektrix into the body of the email:
- {ToName}: The name of the Gift Voucher recipient (mandatory)
- {FromName}: The name of the purchaser (mandatory)
- {Amount}: The value of the Gift Voucher (mandatory)
- {VoucherCode}: The unique Gift Voucher code (mandatory)
- {Message}: A message to the recipient (mandatory)
- {ExpiryDate}: The date on which the Gift Voucher will expire (optional)
To add these merge fields into the Gift Voucher Email Template, follow these steps:
- Click Control Panel (in the bottom left corner of your Spektrix system):
- Click Admin:
- Click Document Designs > Gifts:
- Click Edit, to make any changes to your Gift Voucher Email Template:
Each time a Gift Voucher email is generated, it will pull through the relevant information from that Order.
TIP: Before you sell Gift Vouchers, perform a test sale and send the Gift Voucher to your own email address. Check that the HTML displays correctly in your email. Once you’re happy with your Gift Voucher Email Template, you can start selling Gift Vouchers.
Once you’ve created your Gift Voucher Document Designs, continue to the next section.
How to add Gift Vouchers to your website
If you want to sell Gift Vouchers online, you’ll need to ask your web developer to add a dedicated page to your website. You can sell Gift Vouchers, using either of the following methods:
Gift Voucher iframe
The Gift Voucher iframe is the quickest and easiest way to add Gift Vouchers to your website. The iframe can be styled to match the design of your website, although some default text in the iframe can’t be changed.
Read Gift Voucher iframes for more information.
Gift Voucher Web Components
Web Components are a set of features that let you create custom HTML, offering more flexibility and an enhanced customer experience. The Gift Voucher web component can be added anywhere on your website, increasing the opportunity to sell Gift Vouchers.
Read Gift Voucher Web Components for more information.
TIP:Each of these methods will produce different results. You should have a conversation with your web developer on which method would best suit your organisation.
Once you’ve added Gift Vouchers to your website, proceed to the next section.
Selling Gift Vouchers
Once you’ve set up Gift Vouchers, created your Gift Voucher and Email Template Design, and your web dev has added a Gift Voucher page to your website, you’re ready to sell Gift Vouchers in the Sales Interface and Online.
Read Selling and Managing Gift Vouchers for more information.
Refunding Gift Vouchers
You can refund a Gift Voucher in the same way as you refund any other Order in your Spektrix system. Read Refunding Gift Vouchers for more information.
Reporting on Gift Vouchers
If you need to report on the sale and redemption of Gift Vouchers, the best report to use is the Special Report.
REMINDER: You’ll need the Insights & Mailings User Role on your User Account before you can access Reports. If you don’t have this, ask the Administrator in your organisation.
You can find this by following these steps:
- Click the Control Panel button (in the bottom left corner of Spektrix):
- Click Insights & Mailings:
- Click Special Reports:
- Choose the date range for the period you want to view:
- Click Run by month or Run by year:
- Click on BalanceReport.pdf when it appears in the top right corner of Spektrix, to open the report:
The report will display the amount of credit issued, spent and expired on your system over the specified time period.
For more information about Account Credit, read How Does Spektrix Deal With Credits.
If you run the report By Month, you’ll see the data for each month:
If you run the report By Year, you’ll see one section for each year in your chosen date range:
The Period Ending date is determined by the Financial Year setting in your system. While this example shows the 31st January, your report will reflect the date set in your system. If you need to change this date, please contact Support.
When a Customer buys a Gift Voucher, these transactions are shown as Credits on your Payments & Activities Report.
When Gift Vouchers are redeemed to Account Credit and used as a payment method, you’ll see these in the Payment Types section of the report as Gift Voucher Spend.
TIP: It’s not possible to break down Gift Voucher sales into payment types if a customer uses multiple methods of payment, or buys other items within one transaction.
This is because a Basket/Cart can include multiple Events, items and payments within the same transaction. An Order containing two or more methods of payment is called a Mixed Payment.
As each payment is made, not specifically for a particular item, but rather to pay for the combination of items in the Basket/Cart
Amending Gift Voucher Expiry Dates
While you can change the period for Default Gift Voucher Expiry, the change will only apply to Gift Vouchers sold from the point the Expiry Date is changed.
REMINDER: You’ll need the Settings Administrator Role on your User Account before you can change these Settings. If you don’t have this, ask the Administrator in your organisation.
To amend the Default Gift Voucher Expiry, follow these steps:
- Click the Control Panel button (in the bottom left corner of Spektrix):
- Click Settings:
- Click Configuration > System Setup from the top menu:
- Click Credits & Commissions from the left menu:
- Default limit on future Gift Voucher delivery: Enter a value (in months):
- Default Gift Voucher Expiry: Enter a value (in months), or select Never expire::
- Click Save Configuration:
Individual Vouchers
Once you’ve sold a Gift Voucher, you can’t extend its original Expiry Date. However, provided the Gift Voucher is still valid, you can purchase a new Gift Voucher, using the existing Gift Voucher as payment. The new Gift Voucher will have a new Expiry Date depending on the settings you’ve specified in How to Set Up Gift Vouchers.
Expired Gift Vouchers
If a Gift Voucher has expired and you want to honour the voucher’s value, you’ll need to perform a Sale for a new Gift Voucher using a Custom Payment Type to pay for the transaction.
A Custom Payment Type is a method of payment used to complete a transaction without taking a payment, but when you still need to account for the full value of the transaction in Spektrix.
Check with your finance team before performing this type of sale, as they may have their own guidance around using Custom Payment Types.
Extending Gift Vouchers in Bulk
It isn’t possible for a Spektrix user to extend the Expiry Date of Gift Vouchers previously sold. However, if you contact Support, our team can extend Gift Voucher Expiry Dates in bulk.
This is useful if your venue has been closed for an extended period and Customers have been unable to spend their Gift Vouchers.
This procedure is only applicable where Gift Vouchers are within their Expiry Date. If a Gift Voucher has expired, read Expired Gift Vouchers for further information.
You now have the information needed to set up Gift Vouchers in Spektrix.